Biotic Water Quality Rating System (Q-value) - Decision support tool

Description

The Agency requires consultancy services to review and further refine a predictive model that will reliably predict the most likely Q-value based on a range environmental conditions and seasonal factors. The model will be required to take account of the ecological baseline used in the EU intercalibration process for the WFD over the 2003 – 2013 period. The current version of the decision support system called ‘AutoQ’ comprises a spreadsheet with a series of regression equations each of which predicts Q- Value based on the relationship between the number of taxa and relative abundance of taxa within each of the five Q-Value categories A,B,C,D,E of varying sensitivity to organic enrichment. The regression equations were derived from historical data in the EPA’s biological Q Value database. The current version was developed from an ERC Research Fellowship “Decision Support System for the ecological assessment of Irish Rivers” undertaken by Dr Aisling Walsh, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, UCD in 2008. A copy of the final report is included in the documents. The datasets used in the project will be made available to the successful candidate. The work will involve: • Review of the current draft predictive model; • Improvements to the existing modelled relationships between biotic scores and environmental conditions; • Refinement of the seasonal reference conditions applied • Validation of its output against the existing Q values dataset • A further element to be added is the prediction of Q-Value using other European Biotic indexes. Initial work on this has narrowed the choice to approximately 10 metrics based on the AQEM software developed under an EU- funded international project (http://www.aqem.de/ ) • Documentation of the predictive model and the preparation of a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) manual